openSUSE Project’s Douglas DeMaio just informed us today about the beta availability of the upcoming openSUSE Leap 15 operating system as snapshots that users can download and install on their computers.

As such, openSUSE Project’s dream of having a versioning scheme in sync with SLE (SUSE Linux Enterprise) is finally becoming a reality with the release of openSUSE Leap 15, which is expected to hit the streets this spring in May. Until the final release, openSUSE Leap 15 will follow a rolling development model.

“As with [Leap] 42.3, Leap 15.0 will also use a rolling development model until it’s final build. That means no concrete milestones but new builds as soon as openQA gives a green light,” said Ludwig Nussel in today’s announcement. “Everyone is encouraged to download the current builds and help testing.”

openSUSE Leap 15 will use RPM 4.14 and combined /var subvolume

The final openSUSE Leap 15 release will launch with two other major features besides Linux kernel 4.14 and KDE Plasma 5.12 LTS, and that’s the latest RPM 4.14 package management system that was recently included in openSUSE Tumbleweed, and the combined /var subvolume for new installations.

Until then, you are invited to download the openSUSE Leap 15 Beta snapshots, install it and test it on your personal computer, and give feedback to the developers, which will meet at the openSUSE conference in Prague around the time of the final release of openSUSE Leap 15.

The Release Candidate (RC) milestone of openSUSE Leap 15 is expected to land in April or early May, and the team said that one year after the release of openSUSE Leap 15.0, the first point release, openSUSE Leap 15.1, will be based on SLE15SP1 (SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 Service Pack 1).